Thank you John Oliver and your staff for a significant public service on your show this week! Your commentary and excellent coverage of a major problem in substance use disorder and alcohol treatment will have an impact far beyond what the insurance and professional communities have been able to do.

MINES has patients who have gone out of network, received poor care, the payors have received outrageous bills, the patients are stuck with bills that can only result in medical bankruptcy and as you noted, people die in these disreputable facilities. A major component that you pointed out is patient brokering. When people Google substance abuse/use treatment, the top 20-30 are facilities, mostly in Florida and California, or are patient brokers. Reputable facilities in the person’s community do not even make the list. Then the facilities sometimes even pay the airfare to fly the patient to their facility and if the patient does not meet medical necessity for that level of care, the facility turns them out on the street to find their own way back to the state/community they live in.

You mentioned addictionologists as a resource for finding reputable care. In addition, Employee Assistance Programs as well as managed behavioral health services (insurance) are knowledgeable and informed about substance use and alcohol treatment. They know which facilities and programs are in network with the insurance and which ones do a good job.

Evidence-based treatment supports the use of a continuum of care from outpatient, intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, residential and detox (medical and social detox). There are medications that also contribute to sobriety and health.

These are chronic illnesses/conditions that require the patients to cope with all their lives. Learning relapse prevention and adherence skills are essential.

If you decide to delve into this national problem further in a future episode, I would be happy to consult with you and your team.

When it comes to your health, it’s important to realize that the decisions you make do not exist in a vacuum. In fact, it may be even more the decision of your peer group than yourself as to what you eat, how you exercise, and what other habits and behaviors you engage in. Recent studies have shown that your social network (and we’re not talking about facebook here, although that may be one depiction and/or part of your social network) has a greater impact on our overall health and well-being than we knew (or, in some cases, would like to think!).

An excellent, recent article posted by Mark Hyman, MD on the Huffington Post explains: “Much can be done with a little help from your friends.” Creating a community around health topics, especially related to health behavior changes, can be critical to instituting new or better habits that have an impact on your total well-being.

At MINES, there are a couple of us that get together for lunch every day. In the course of the meal, we may talk about the Broncos, the latest political debate, technology, and so on. But one thing that we do every meal is discuss what we are eating. We come together and discuss new recipes we’ve discovered and why we’ve chosen to eat as we have. I recently (and at the time of this posting, currently) tried to eat only whole foods for a month. This meant no salt, no sugar, no cheese, sweetening my coffee with honey, and very little pasta / bread. It has been difficult to fully 180 turn around on a diet that had previously heavily relied on enriched cereal grains and pre-processed foods. But, the reason I was able to make the shift, I believe, was that I was positively influenced by this group that was interested in, shared similar views on, and regularly engaged (daily) in the topic. In behavioral health, we would say this created a support resource for treatment adherence.

Healthy behavior is not dependent on what payment models, medical technology, or other innovations come about in the healthcare debate. We know that your friend’s friend has a great impact on what you do – and vice versa.

Today, you could:

Discover new friends

Decide to impact your friends

Ask for support from your friends

Be influenced by your friends

Today, make a decision about one habit that you want to change and find someone who wants to make that change with you (or even better, a group of people) and you’ll find yourself much more likely to achieve it. If you’re not sure how to decide what changes to make or need some ideas on creating your own wellness plan, one of our Affiliates, Cecelia Keelin, recently hosted a ChooseWell webinar for MINES that might help.

As we focus on Overcoming Addiction as this month’s wellness theme, it’s important to note that addictions not only affect the addict themselves, but have a huge impact on the family, friends, and loved ones who surround the individual.

While family members may focus more on the addict rather than themselves during recovery, many addiction treatment models include the family member as part of the addict’s healing because of the role that relationship can play.

In browsing the MINES PersonalAdvantage site (our online resource portal available to MINES client organizations) I was able to find a wealth of information concerning addiction and the affects on the family. Specifically, one article by Parlay International points out that family members often share the same concerns, such as:

Suspicion of the addict’s actions, leading to constant family conflict.

They blame themselves and each other for addict’s illness.

They are afraid of the addicts changing behavior, especially mood swings. They fear it could break up the family unit.

They are embarrassed by the addict’s behavior.

They resent the unfair demands place upon them by the addict.

If you or someone you know is suffering from addiction, check out community resources such as Al-Anon or Narc-Anon. Additionally, feel free to contact us at MINES anytime for support or related questions concerning addiction or other behavioral health concern. We’re here to help.